Death Knights Brotherhood
The Death Knights Brotherhood of Davostag and Athlorcaea is a political, religious and philosophical order in Davostan with teachings based on mysticism, occultism and belief in necromancy. History & Mythology The Death Knights claim to be an ancient order perceiving timeless truths lt eons ago to the rest of humanity. According to official Death Knight history, the order was founded in 10079 BE by the goddess Kayleen, goddess of intrigue and the night, sometimes identified with the Soren Goddess Niótt. Kayleen saw the inherent destructiveness in traditional satanic and heathen morals, the destruction of the self through hedonism and unlawfulness. She famously torched a parchment with the Mordusian heathen rede, "an it harm none do as ye will". She revealed that each of the pleasures leads to pain, pain from being sick from eating too much, grieving the death of one’s beloved, etc. The solution was to embrace death, which is perfection through sensory deprivation. Around of this truth, she assembled seven noblemen, knights of unholy Davostag, and granted them the powers to raise the dead from their graves, as well as the power to chose the time of their own death. The Death Knights also gained her permission to assassinate those who worked directly to undermine these noble truths. In the following millenniums, Death Knights supposedly practiced their black magic in secret, being a hidden society limited to seven dark knights of Davostag, officially hailing Satanail and Lord Medivh Evil as sovereigns, but in secrecy working to establish a new order contrary to satanic morals. This would end in 3212, with the downfall of the Unholy Empire at the hands of an ATR-instigated rebellion. Death Knights were hunted as threats to the new order by the new democratic masters and were forced to hide in the unhabitable and barren volcanic wastelands of western Davostag, or go into exile. It was in these times that Aesir the Warlock stepped forward as Commander of the Faithful. Aesir reorganized the order into a formal political entity, started accepting commonmen as acolytes of the order and even welcomed women and Hosians into the its ranks. Three of the other Death Knights were angered by this decision and labelled Aesir a heretic, however they could say little when he took power over Davostag in 3241 and was declared Unholy Sovereign by victorious Death Knight militia. The Death Knights received support from Selucia and Barmenia and sent 6.666 knights as support to the Crimson Crusade in the Pontesian Civil War. Aesir formally separated the day-to-day administrative and spiritual duties from the supreme command of the order, by creating the post of Sigil-Bearer to deal with the first. Traditionally, the post Sigil-Bearer has been held by a Dame/Death Knightesses while the Commander is male, although there have been a few exceptions with female Commanders. Some traditionalists have objected to this, as Kayleen only chose males of the warrior chaste to be her dark champions. The Death Knight s survived the Kazulian invasion of Davostag and acted as protector of the Barmenian puppet king Grimm on the isle of Mordorstad. The Death Knights also participated in the Davostag-Barmenian Debt Wars on the Barmenian side. The Death Knights were not indiscriminately hostile to the Kazulian invader however, often working as mercenaries and assassins for the House of Zachary against the House of Thor, perhaps for the sake of spreading destruction and splintering among the Kazuliar ranks.